


A Condition of Complete Simplicity

by scholarlydragon



Category: Lore Olympus (Webcomic)
Genre: Brothers, F/M, Gen, Scheming
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-26
Updated: 2019-01-26
Packaged: 2020-04-24 09:23:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,051
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19170391
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/scholarlydragon/pseuds/scholarlydragon
Summary: Sometimes the way to find what’s needed is to quit fighting it.





	A Condition of Complete Simplicity

**Author's Note:**

> Alulah and Jessy, thank you for editing help.  
> Y’all are heroes
> 
> __________
> 
> “Not known, because not looked for  
> But heard, half-heard, in the stillness  
> Between two waves of the sea.  
> Quick now, here, now, always--  
> A condition of complete simplicity  
> (Costing not less than everything).”  
> \- T.S. Eliot “Little Gidding”

Zeus sprawled back casually into the cushioned chair, propping his feet up onto his brother’s desk. He looked around the enormous space with a wistful sigh.

“Why don’t I have an office this nice?”

“Because you’re too cheap to pay for it,” Hades growled, “Would you get your damn feet off my desk?”

“No,” Zeus said mildly. “An office this nice needs some casual, executive kicking back, Hades. I bet you’re too uptight to have ever put your feet up like this. You really should learn to unwind a little.”

Hades rolled his eyes and wordlessly turned back to the paperwork spread on the low table in front of the couch, where he’d retreated after Zeus had claimed his desk. The scowl on his face as he read over the forms and reports was clear, even across the room. Zeus squinted at his older brother, his mouth twisting pensively. There was something wrong.

He’d come to the underworld on the pretense of realm inspections. Which was something he really should have been doing more often as king of the gods. It was just  _ so  _ tedious. Little enough changed in most of the domains that there didn’t seem to be much of a point. Especially when it came to the underworld. Hades ran things well enough that he didn’t need a supervisor. Unlike Poseidon…

But lately Hades, ever taciturn, had grown even more withdrawn, terser and quicker to irritation. While Zeus would have been perfectly happy in the past to chalk this up to the king of the dead being his normal asocial self, this had a different feel to it, a different flavor. Enough that he was worried, and he didn’t generally need to worry about Hades. Consequently, this was less of a business trip and more of a family checkup. He would just have to tread carefully in trying to ferret out information. It was unlikely Hades would take kindly to his little brother checking in on him.

He rubbed his chin with one hand, pondering over various possibilities, as he watched Hades work. A sudden flash of inspiration struck as he recalled the empty desk in the lobby when he had arrived. If Minthe was gone… 

She could have simply had the day off. But if Hades had cut her loose, or  _ she _ had dumped  _ him, _ that would certainly explain his mood. Zeus contemplated how to bring it up, acknowledging  his inherent lack of tact. It wasn’t often that he felt the need to tailor his words, but he actually cared about Hades.  _ Ah well, not much to do other than go for it and hope the Fates are smiling today. _

“So, where’s Minthe?” he asked, hoping he sounded nonchalant enough. Hades glanced up silently, raising one eyebrow. Zeus shrugged. “I saw the desk out front was empty.”

“Gone,” Hades grunted, turning over a sheaf of papers, looking away.

“Like _ gone _ gone, or like vacation gone?”

Hades rolled his eyes and said nothing. Zeus sighed.  _ Well, that answers that. What did you do now, you great blueberry? _

“Since when?”

“Recently.”

“You’re no fun when you’re in one-word-answer mode,” Zeus pouted. Hades gave an annoyed-sounding growl.

“It’s not meant to be _ fun _ , you asshat,” he muttered. “I don’t want to talk about it.”

Zeus raised his hands in a conciliatory gesture. “Sorry. Have it your way.” He fell silent, mulling. So the nymph was gone. The loss of Hades’ long-time lover, regardless of the circumstance of separation, could explain the ill mood. But something else nagged at the back of Zeus’ mind. Perhaps just wishful thinking that Hades would not be so put out by the loss of Minthe, but he couldn’t quite shake the notion that there was more to it.

The sound of a knock at the office door interrupted his train of thought. Hades called out, “Come in!” The door swung open to reveal a tottering stack of binders and loose pieces of paper. 

As the stack entered the room and began climbing the short flight of stairs, a cheerful voice piped up from behind it. “Got the stuff you asked for, boss.” The stack wobbled and the voice turned from cheerful to alarmed. “ _ Whoa _ !”

Hades bolted from the couch to steady the stack and take some of the burden, revealing a grinning pink face as the binders were lifted away. Zeus recognized Persephone instantly and raised one eyebrow. That explained why Hades had sprinted to help. He was normally so absorbed in his work he wouldn’t have noticed unless the stack had fallen  _ on _ him. There was still the interesting question of what she was doing there in the first place. He hadn’t know that Persephone had started working at Underworld Corporation.  _ I think I might need to have a talk with Hera about keeping secrets… _

“Thanks, Hades,” Persephone said, puffing a wayward strand of hair out of her face with a quick breath.

“I don’t understand why you don’t just use the carts to move this stuff.” The words came out in Hades’ familiar grumble, but the look on his face didn’t match his tone in the least. Faint smile reaching the eyes, small blush…  _ Fates, is he  _ teasing _ her _ ?! Wonders would truly never cease. He wouldn’t have thought Hades even capable of teasing.

“They’re never where they’re supposed to be,” Persephone shrugged. “People don’t put them back when they’re done. It’s just easier to scoop up the stack and walk it in myself.”

Zeus watched the interaction with interest. The change in attitude was astounding. When around his brothers, Hades put out an air of irritated tolerance for the most part. Which demeanor Zeus would freely admit he enjoyed pushing toward frustration when he could. But there was truth in the observations he’d made to Hera after the Panathenaea. Hades had never much cared for the company of anyone.  _ Except apparently the goddess of Spring… _ Even Minthe had never quite seemed to inspire this.

“Persephone, may I introduce my brother, Zeus,” Hades said, gesturing toward his desk. Zeus saw her eyes widen as she looked over at him.

“Your- um, your majesty!” She shifted awkwardly, flustered, any attempt at a bow or curtsy foiled by the binders she still held.

Zeus waved off the gesture of respect with a smile. He wasn’t much of one to stand on ceremony in these kinds of casual circumstances at any rate, and the puzzle of Persephone was much more compelling at the moment anyway. He watched as Hades set down the stack he held and took the remainder from her with a smile.

To a casual observer, the interaction would seem to be innocuous enough, if a touch too familiar for their difference in professional standing. But Zeus was not a casual observer and he had known his brother for too many centuries to not pick up on his subtle cues. The small smile crinkling the corners of his eyes, eye contact held just a beat too long, a hitch and sigh to his breathing when her gaze was focused on the papers spread across the table.

_He’s smitten…_ _I’m no Aphrodite or Eros, but even_ I _can tell he wants her._

More pieces of the puzzle were falling into place. It would have been so like Hades to not realize how he  felt about her or, if he did clue in, to rationalize it away.

Zeus remembered the conversation at the strip club the morning after the Panathenaea. Clearly, Hades no longer had trouble stringing two thoughts together around her but, just as clearly, he was no closer to forgetting about her than he had been then.  As then, he seemed no closer to acting on his feelings. Zeus had seen Hades flirt before. Awkward, nerdy flirting to be sure, but flirting nonetheless. There were elements here, but there was a strange restraint.

_ Definitely smitten, but he’s stifling it. _

The flash of thought came out of nowhere, but it didn’t take much contemplation to see that it was perfect. But why? Zeus watched them conferring quietly over the paperwork. The fact he was her superior couldn’t be it. Minthe had been a glorified secretary and Hades had been contemplating marrying her, for Fate’s sake!

As Zeus watched, he noticed that Hades’ body-language was mirrored in Persephone. Small touches and leaning into personal space, blushes and grins. Zeus quickly hid a grin of his own behind his hand. He hadn’t spent as much time around women as he had to not recognize signs of interest when he saw them, even if they were directed at someone else.

_ She’s into him too! _

The question was what to do about it. It seemed impossible that Hades didn’t notice her attitude towards him but it seemed equally impossible that he wouldn’t act on it, given his stated interest in the goddess of Spring.  _ He’s been a fool in relationships before, but surely he’s not that dense. _ Zeus pondered how to pry the information out of his brother as Hades and Persephone wrapped up their impromptu conference. Persephone gave him a wave and a wide smile, which Zeus returned, as she whisked out of the office once more.

As she left, Hades stared after her, almost leaning toward the door as though he were having to stop himself from following. Zeus rose from the desk and strolled casually over to stand next to Hades.

“New intern?”

Hades jumped, startled, before scowling and going back to the couch and trying to absorb himself once more into his paperwork. Zeus watched him with a faint smile on his lips.

“Since when does an intern runs errands for the CEO?”

“Ever since the CEO no longer has a PA,” Hades grumbled. “Why do you care?” Zeus shrugged, the motion exaggerated.

“Just curious. It’s not an arrangement you see every day. Is your HR department having trouble filling the empty position?”

“I didn’t ask them to. Persephone was here and I was going to have to create a position for her anyway.”

Zeus smirked, internally congratulating himself on restraint from the innuendo-laden joke he wanted to make. Much more satisfying was the information Hades was so unwittingly providing.  _ Took the opportunity to have her working near, did you? _ It was still unclear why Hades was so obviously throttling back how he felt, but that was almost beside the point. He wanted her and she wanted him, even if neither of them could see it. Zeus considered how best to pry out more information. It was rather unlikely that Hades would volunteer it, or respond well to direct questions. Zeus grinned. Time to see what results riling him up might yield.

“Soooo, she’s nice…” Zeus raised one eyebrow. Hades’ reply was quick and terse.

“No. Off limits.”

Zeus folded his arms and grinned. “So you went for it?” The grin turned sly. “Did you get to ‘live between her thighs’?”

“Don’t you ever get tired of being a crass bastard?”

Zeus grinned wider. “No.” Hades sighed and raked his hands through his hair.

“Not everyone is like you, Zeus, it takes more than the sway of a pair of hips for some of us.”

Zeus bit back the automatic angry retort provoked by Hades’ snide remark. His appreciation for the fairer sex was well-known and there had been more than a few times that the sway of hips had indeed been all it took. But Hades had always been different in that respect.

_ It does take more than that for some of us, my sweet blue idiot. And she’s got what it takes for you in _ spades,  _ doesn’t she _ ?

Now, there was the question of what to do about it.

There was no way that Zeus would ever regret Minthe being out the picture. He’d never quite sneered at the nymph the way that Hera did, but any fool could have seen that Hades wasn’t completely happy with her. Zeus thought hard as he watched Hades bend once more back over his paperwork. His brother was clearly stuck in a rut. Just as clearly as he was stuck on the goddess of Spring. _ I wonder if he even realizes how much he lights up the moment she’s so much as mentioned. _ An idea was forming in the back of his mind.

Time to confer with Poseidon.


End file.
